adventures in keeping a sketchbook

After years and years of following Alisa Burke's blog, I finally got inspired to start a sketchbook. I tend to go in cycles with creative outlets, which can last as long as six or seven years. I'm certainly not giving up jewelry making, but I don't have the drive to make jewelry all of the time (and document much of the process here) the way that I did three or four years ago. Mixing up my creative routine allows me to not burn out on making jewelry so that I can still keep my jewelry Etsy shop and keep selling jewelry at craft fairs.

I've never had much natural talent or inclination when it comes to drawing or painting, but something about working in a sketchbook has appealed to me lately. It's been a fun way to experiment with colors and ideas while working on something creative and relaxing while I watch TV or hang out with family and friends and still pushing myself out my comfort zone a little. Actually the biggest part about getting out of my comfort zone is sharing my sketchbook pages. I still feel like a huge amateur. But here it goes.

 I have about a zillion little paper scraps left over from various projects (i.e. greeting cards, flowers), and I hate throwing them away. It's so fun to find new creative uses for paper scraps.

 

When I was printing sheet music on card stock for greeting cards recently, one sheet got pulled through twice and thus printed on twice. I didn't realize it until much later. It turned out to be such an amazing background that I might do this again on purpose.

I know that this looks really simple, but it takes many many hours.

Among many other things, Alisa has inspired me to use really cheap readily available supplies, like cardboard tubes (which I used here to make the circles), in my creative process.

I absolutely love silhouette skylines at sunset and would love to take a photo like this someday.

As you can tell, I sort of have a thing about clouds. It's one of the first things that I gravitate toward when I'm doodling.

Sometimes when I have little stretches of time, I prep backgrounds. I have no idea what I'm going to do with these little shapes yet. They're kind of fabulous on their own, but I might add more detail at some point.

Watercolor background. I have several of these backgrounds in different colors.

Another fun experiment with color that I may or may not add more detail to at some point.

As of writing this post, my current work in progress.

I do a lot of pencil drawing before going back in pen because I don't trust myself to freehand these sorts of designs in pen (yet anyway...).

I have no idea where I'm going with my sketchbook or exactly what I'll be working on over the next few months, but I'll continue to share my progress periodically.

button magnets in the works

I decided to follow up on my in the works post from last week and show you some of the progress that I've made with my button magnets.

This is my first new batch of magnets for the 2011 holiday shopping season.  Generally the larger magnets and the magnets with shaped buttons do well so I mostly focused on that.  This is the first time that I used sequins for the magnets.  I have a bunch of the stars left over from my Christmas tree project.

I got out a cookie sheet that I hadn't used for gluing so I could organize everything.  No, I don't use these cookie sheets in the kitchen.  I got a couple very cheap packs from Wal-Mart a couple years ago with the intention of using them for these types of projects.

Here's what I have left over from last year's shows.  As you can see, most of the simple and smaller buttons don't move as quickly.  Generally people pick up one or two of them to coordinate with some of their larger button picks.

I'm also trying some button pins for the first time this year.  I've been wanting to do this for a long time but just haven't because I've always focused on the magnets for shows.  I'm attempted to do both this year, though, as well as button tacks, which I have more about below.

 These are the last two batches that I did this past week.  I took both pictures before I'd started gluing. All of the narrow heart buttons with two small buttons stacked on top are going to be tacks, which is another project that I've wanted to do for a long time.  I'm planning to use a bulletin board to display some of my earrings at the fall shows this year and can put the tacks around the edges and sell them, too.

As always, if anyone is interested in anything that you see here, please let me know.  I'm not planning to list magnets, pins, or tacks on Etsy any time soon but they are always available.  Just contact me for pricing and close up shots of specific items.  Custom colors/styles are welcome.

I used this post for a link party over at Artful Rising.

Fourth of July sneak peak

I've been working on a few Fourth of July pieces this week, including a bunch of Fourth of July themed button earrings, which will be my free giveaway with all orders during the month of July.  Here are a few pictures of my progress this week.  I'm planning to list them by the end of the week so they'll be ready to go July 1st.  I'll have my other item up shortly, too.

Now that I have my gluing tray back in action, I'll be working on more button earrings and button magnets in the near future.  I already have 8 more earring pairs in other assorted colors ready to be glued.

orange treasury and custom earrings in progress

Mouna (beadsofaquarius) included my Square Stitch Cuff Bracelet - Embellished - Summer in her Orange Mecanique treasury.  This collection is so elegant!  And I love that it's orange.  Not many people would strive for orange elegance.  But it really works here.  Thanks Mouna!

bracelet pearl green vintage inspired fashion jewelry La Boheme spring summer

I got the periwinkle beads that I needed for my custom earrings to match this bracelet so I set to work on that last night.

I should have pictures of the finished earrings up within the next week.  I also finished my June EBW Challenge piece and am planning on listing it within the week.  Stay tuned!

sneak peak of Working Together

I had no intention of entering the June EBW Challenge, but an idea came to me within the week after it was announced so I'm going for it.  I absolutely have to get it done during this lull while I wait for my beads for custom orders or it won't happen.  So I put a lot of work in this weekend.

It'll have three strands like this, each with the dark blue running through it.  Originally I was going to have them lay next to each other, but now I think that I'll end up twisting them.

I also got the second strand done over the weekend.  Here are some of the beads for it before I started.

The last strand will be light blue.  That's all I'm leaving you with for now.  I'll have more details about the theme for the piece and why I choose it when I finish.

I published a new crafty hub this weekend: Craft Fairs: What to Bring and Display Considerations.  Please check it out if you haven't already.  As always, if you've missed any past crafty hubs, they're all linked on the side of my blog.

in the works and other creative endeavors

I was very excited to get my Art Beads blogging package at the end of the week and start of my new piece this weekend.  Unfortunately, even though all of the daggers that I selected are supposed to be the same size, they're not.

I should have realized this when I looked at the picture for the green daggers.  Going back to it when I e-mailed the Art Beads coordinator, I could see it.  But the listing clearly states 15x6, and I believed that.  I might have enough daggers to complete the piece without those.  It doesn't change the fact that I was planning on using them, though, or that the listing is wrong.  I'm still waiting to hear back from Art Beads.

But the patina daggers are just as awesome, if not more so, than they look on the web site.  I'm still very excited for my piece.

Instead I've been working on my new neutral skinny fringed cuff.  I love this neutral partially metallic palette.  It's coming together even better than I'd hoped.  And I've picked out a metal button for the clasp.

Finally, I joined HubPages this weekend.  I'm planning to do a lot more with this once we've moved to Milwaukee and I'm not working full time.  But while we have a little uneventful time here before the graduation and moving craziness, I'm getting it started.  I'll mostly be writing about education/special education stuff as well as some DIY craft projects (most of which I've posted here before), recipes, travel, music, books, and anything else that inspires me.  I took new pictures of my process for making spinach calzones this weekend (Jake and I did photograph this a few years ago).

The calzone hub is up here.  Also, check out my first two hubs that I wrote yesterday: 10 Beadweaving Books to Check Out and Beaded Peyote Triangle Step by Step Instructions.

works in progress

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I've been working on some more ambitious beading projects lately.  It's not even that they're more difficult most of the work that I do, but they're more time consuming.  I have a ton of inventory to list already and want to focus on some bigger projects that I've been planning for a while.

I got the red and blue flower beads over a year ago.  (I have way more than what I put in the shot above.)  When I had them out with a bunch of other new beads, they ended up next to these espresso bean delicas.  I decided that they would make a perfect base.  So far I'm still confident that this will work well.  But I grossly underestimated the number of delicas that I would need.  I got a couple more bags from Art Beads this week.  Let me know what you think of the button I have paired with it in this picture.  I think it would be neat to use something slightly metallic without going too shiny.

Also, I've been promising to take a picture of my current cross-stitch piece in progress, and here it is.

There has been some confusion from people who glance quickly and think that it's Santa.  It's not.  It's a wizard.  I'm always amazed how much detail you can see without any of the back stitching or other final embellishment.  I have my cross-stitch on our newly decorated table in our living room.  Our living room and kitchen are all one big connected area and the table is in the living room.  For the last couple years, it has mostly looked like this.  I finally packed the castle up this week and put a table cloth, place mats, napkins, and candles on it.  Jake couldn't believe the difference.  I'll have a shot up sometime when I post my final condo organization shots before/around when we sell our place.

Finally, this is the view that I see through my camera when I set it down next to my light box.  I got inspired to take a picture of it over the weekend.

starting new spring pieces

I have a couple new spring pieces in the works.  I have ideas for a few more as well, but this is what I have going on so far.

I laid out my next leafy bracelet, which will feature a lovely Lisa Peters ceramic leaf bead for the clasp.  I made one like this before for my spring 2010 Art Beads piece that sold at the Iowa Arts Festival before I could ever list it on Etsy.

I'll probably make another green rock garden bracelet after this while I still have all of those green leaves and seed beads out.

Over the weekend, I got my beads for my next EBW Challenge piece.  The theme is Spring Around the Corner.

It will be in this design with a brown base and all green fringe like plants just poking out of the ground.  I'm going to include some lighter green seed beads in the piece so it isn't too dark.  There are two challenges that I'll have for this piece.  Even though I've worked this design about a dozen times, I still haven't written the pattern.  (This is the one that I attempted recently but messed up partway through the process.)  I'm determined to get the pattern done so I can list it as the same time as the piece.  The other challenge will be that I'm using a metal clasp (the metal leaf clasp pictured above) for a beadwoven piece, which I don't usually do.  I'll include instructions in the pattern for both a metal clasp and a button clasp.

new work in progress and other recent happenings

I have a decent amount of inventory built up so I'm working on a few more time consuming cuffs, which are ideas that I've been sitting on for quite a while.  Here's a picture of one of them in progress.

Some of you may recognize this as one of Carol's patterns (SandFibers).  A project like this is exactly why I designed this beading board.  It's wonderful to keep all of these delicas separated!  On a side note, this cuff will coordinate with these earrings.  I still haven't figured out what sort of clasp I want to make for the cuff and am open to suggestions.

And because I haven't posted any pictures of Angel here in a while, here are a couple of new ones.

Jake and I are still laughing about this first one.  I took the bedding out of her bed this week because it needed to be cleaned very badly.  She climbed in anyway while it was still in the wash.

I took this one yesterday after I shot my in progress shot from above.

And the treasuries keep rolling in!  I've been very fortunate to be included in three more treasuries in the last couple days.  Olga (thebeadloomgallery) included my PDF Beading Pattern - Skinny Wrapped Peyote Cuff Bracelet  - For Personal Use in her Be Creative with adorable Etsy Beadweavers tutorials! treasury.

Rita (RitasCreationsOnEtsy) included my Beaded Bracelet - Purple Rock Garden in her Plum Pickins treasury.

Jen (Walrustusk) included my Beaded Cuff Bracelet - Fringed - Champagne Party in her I Would Love to Meet You...Comment treasury.

organization and a sneak peak

As part of our effort to clean and organize our condo before we will most likely move in June, I have been organizing my beads.  We have a lot of random things stored in shoe boxes.  I'm trying to get rid of those.  I used several large craft organizers in my classroom the first couple years I had my current position.  I don't anymore so I took them home.  My goal is to get all of my beads, buttons, and findings into proper craft organizers and throw my remaining current craft supplies (E-6000, extra pliers, etc.) into a couple small storage bins.

Needless to say, this is easier said than done, especially because I would rather be crafting than organizing.  I'm planning to organize most beads as I go, filing them into their new homes after I finish projects instead of throwing them back into shoe boxes.  I organized my findings first because they were honestly the easiest part of the task to accomplish.

The Czech glass and more specialized components (handmade ceramic buttons, etc.) will be pretty easy to organize, too.  I'm going to keep working at it slowly.  The buttons won't be too bad either once I get a color system going.  I'm not positive how I'm going to sort my seed beads.  I figure I'll save that for last and see how my storage space looks when I get there.

I organized my living room work space last weekend before my in-laws came for a last minute visit.  This way some people can believe that this is how I normally have my current/next in line projects organized on that table.  (Anyone who does any sort of crafting knows what a funny idea that is.)

You'll notice that we still have the castle walls on that same table.  When we gave our second TV to my little sister-in-law this winter, I was able to relocate most of our smaller plaster pieces to the mantle, but I don't know where we're going to put the walls when it's time to sell our place.

Finally, here's a sneak peak of one of my current projects.  I have so much finished, not yet listed inventory right now that I haven't taken too many "in progress" pictures lately, but the process pictures can be just as fascinating as the finished pictures.  This is an idea that I've had for literally almost a year (although the metal shank button clasp was a more recent addition to the overall idea) and I'm finally using some of the beads that I bought almost that long ago to make it happen.

I'm also planning to remake this bangle design when I've finished, which has an almost identical color palette.